by Andy Patrizio
Software piracy is flourishing on the Internet. Most of the piracy is done through a global chat network called Internet Relay Chat (IRC) that allows people to chat in real time. IRC has a number of networks with the largest being EFNet which has thousands of channels containing requests for illegal software. The channels also have programs called "bots' that send messages to the channel advertising what is available and receive orders for files. The Software Publishers Association (SPA) has fought the piracy, but admits that the problem appears to be beyond the control of any agency. The Electronic Theft, (NET) Act passed by Congress in October of 97, makes it a criminal offense to pirate even when no monetary gain is involved. Under the new law, penalties could be as high as $250,000 and five years in prison per title infringed. The SPA is targeting college students, because under the NET law schools may be partially liable for piracy by their students. Michigan and Washington have responded by expelling students from school.I would probably discuss the new law with the students as a group. We could begin with examples of "sharing" programs and a definition of what shareware is and isn't. Students often share and make copies of music cassettes as well which could lead to a discussion of the creative process and ownership of that work. Eighth graders are often concerned with being rich and famous. Most would be highly indignant if they were the authors of a popular new program and saw thousands of dollars flow away from them by people taking the program because it "doesn't really hurt anyone."
Investment FraudThis site discusses the many ways that investment con-artists have seized upon to gain money quickly using the Internet. It discusses the basic categories of investment fraud such as the classic Pyramid, the Risk-free Fraud, and the "Pump and Dump" Scam. It offers lists of companies that the SEC has taken action against and how to protect oneself from fraud including links to questions that should be asked, telltale signs of fraud and investigations that should be done before you invest.
This site is made for the math teachers who do the stock market project and for the students who find stock and other quick ways to make money that is too good to be true. This could be integrated into critical thinking activities with scenarios written and groups that either act them out or try to find the fraud patterns in the deal or the mal adaptive thinking patterns that arise in the victim who is looking for the deal too good to be true.
Free SpeechFree Speech in Cyberspace: What's a University to Do? This is a press release about a book and a World Wide Web debate on the issues raised in the book called Free Speech in the College Community by Robert M. O'Neil, Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Speech. The site gives three controversial cases at three different colleges. It includes the case of Author Butz, the professor of engineering at Northwestern University, who contends that the Holocaust is a hoax on his home page and proclaims his views on the University's Web site. O'Neil states that the ability of a university to regulate communications in cyberspace is even lower that its ability to regulate spoken or written communications.
The three brief cases given at the beginning of this article would provide a framework for much class discussion. I would probably need more information on the first amendment to give to the students , but the basic cases given to discussion groups in which students were assigned different roles within a community and asked to come up with guidelines for the university to follow would be ideal. This could be expanded into a court case on a particular individual case. Students could find policy statements from a variety of other universities by searching their home pages. They could also find other court cases and other incidences that had made the news to add to their persuasive arguments.
The Free Speech Rulebook gives a very philosophical and historical perspective to this topic.
Censorship
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Legal Challenge to Internet Censorship
This is everything and more than you could imagine about the case of the ACLU v. Reno: The Legal Challenge to Internet Censorship. The case was argued on March 19, 1998. It has the lower court decisions, main briefs, amicus briefs, documents,day by day proceedings and new accounts from various newspapers, and news organizations. There is also a section on what is called other On-Line Censorship Issues which includes such issues as a ban to keep instructions for making bombs off the Internet, a story about America Online's efforts to ban the speaking of Spanish in its chat discussion rooms, and an archive of poetry banned by AOL. This is the Internet at its best with original documents.
This is not what the average eighth grader would find fascinating, but for those that need to be challenged this provides the opportunity to go in great depth to study how an issue is presented in a variety of media. It allows students to follow a court case from the lower court case to the Supreme Court and is the perfect place to examine Constitutional issues. It gives a teacher the list of original and add on plaintiffs which would help if one wanted to present a mock trial or a mock argument before the Supreme Court.
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